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In this episode, we sit down with attorney and author Michael J. Grace to discuss his book, The Mumbo Jumbo Fix: A Survival Guide for Effective Doctor-Patient-Nurse Communication. As a defense lawyer representing health care providers, …
Many of us physicians are starting off 2023 with various new resolutions, including efficiency and “doing better,” but how do we get there? Our variable training experiences may prevent us from working with health professionals around us who can make our life easier and more efficient. Occupational therapists (or OTs) are that magical unicorn you may have overlooked.
Occupational therapists are regulated health care professionals with advanced training in physical and …
Social media has really exposed the trauma caused by gaslighting, dismissal, and misogyny by medical professionals. Chronic illness groups are rife with posts recounting the poor treatment they suffered at the hands of doctors. Imagine presenting with extreme fatigue, intermittent balance problems, and tingling in your hands and, after a cursory exam, being told your symptoms are due to stress and to lose weight. Two years later, you are diagnosed …
There’s some pretty good evidence out there that women physicians provide really good medical care—in some cases, better than their male counterparts. For instance, a 2017 study showed that hospitalized Medicare patients under the care of a female doctor had lower rates of 30-day mortality and readmission to the hospital than those cared for by a male doctor. A study in Canada in 2016 found that patients of female doctors …
I spotted her on the opposite sidewalk, standing right next to the idling police cruiser. Petite. Brunette. Late 80s and leaning over her red walker as she stared, transfixed, as the EMTs eased her husband into the back of the ambulance.
A few minutes earlier, one of the many sidewalk onlookers had explained: “Poor old man was just crossing the street. Someone said he’d just gone to buy a bagel for …
As patients, we often think of our health care providers as infallible beings who can easily handle their profession’s emotional and physical tolls. However, the reality is that health care professionals are human too, and they are not immune to the effects of burnout, depression, and even suicide.
One forgotten fact about our health care system is that providers are constantly exposed to the suffering of others and are faced with …
It felt like a monumental moment when I started my career in medicine. I grew up largely on the borderline of poverty; my parents lived check to check with my sister and me. Neither of them had gotten a college education, and they sacrificed much of their lives to support my ambitions. So to see their son realize his dream was a proud moment for them. But as a Hispanic …
It can be uniquely difficult as a physician when your loved one needs medical care, and you can’t help them in the way you would like.
Many feelings arise (failure, anger, anxiety, frustration) and the sense that you are letting them down.
As with anything, speaking about the commonality of an experience and normalizing it can help us generate self-compassion, a useful emotion that does not readily come to most …
To the quiet physician who keeps her head down and powers through her days while secretly calculating the ratio of BS-to-be-tolerated versus time-to-retirement:
I have some tough love for you.
You are in a toxic relationship.
How do I know? I’ll let you in on my secret: I was in a psychologically and emotionally manipulative marriage for over twenty years.
At the start of our relationship, I felt blissfully lucky …
Let me tell you that being a doctor in the family can be a tricky business! On the one hand, you’re the go-to person for all things medical, so you’re never short on people to talk to at family gatherings. On the other hand, you’re also the go-to person for all things medical, so you’re never short on people to talk to at family gatherings. That can get old very …
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!
The U.S. health care system ranks poorly among high-income countries, but the direct primary care (DPC) model offers a potential solution. In this model, primary care providers are paid a consistent fee through a retainer or membership …
February 3rd marks the annual observance of National Women Physicians Day, a special day dedicated to honoring the countless female physicians who have dedicated their lives to the health and well-being of their patients. The holiday was created in response to the fact that although women make up over half of all medical school graduates, they still only make up a small percentage of physicians in practice today. This day …
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Surveys show that people are pretty unhappy with the state of health care in the United States these days. Insurance is way too expensive, and co-pays and cost-sharing are out of control, with patients paying the bulk of office visits out of their own pockets. Staffing shortages mean fewer people answer phones, and finding a primary care doctor open to new patients is darn near impossible in my neck …
Sharon Stone has publicly said that medical professionals missed a large fibroid tumor. This followed a prior incident where she reported that she was given larger breast implants without her knowledge while undergoing reconstruction surgery. We all know that Michael Jackson was killed by his personal doctor, who failed to monitor him while he was given Propofol (an anesthetic that is never used at home). Dr. Murray was on the …
I’ve had the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of patients. Along the way, I’ve heard some pretty memorable and interesting things. I thought it might be fun to share a few of my favorites.
One of the most common things I hear from my older patients is something like, “Doc, it’s just hell getting old!” Our standard response is usually …
“My parents abused me as a child. I went no contact with them over ten years ago, but now my dad is in the hospital with a serious diagnosis and the discharge planner keeps asking me to be involved. I don’t want to. What are my rights?”
I read the lengthy message several times, feeling an overwhelming sense of dread. I was in the same “no contact” situation with my own …
There were no smartphones when I was a medical resident in the late 80s in Puerto Rico. During my last year, while waiting for a lecturer to arrive, I grabbed a medical journal from the conference room table to kill some time. I flipped through the pages, skimming the titles of the articles and looking at some of the advertisements. When I was about to put the journal down, I …
“Make thorough inspection.”
– Sir William Osler, MD.
The art of the physical exam is precisely that: an art that must be practiced often, for years on end, and the one that a physician may become a great achiever or skilled but never the master.
When I trained in internal medicine over a decade ago, our program director often harped on this art. I was too naive to understand his message at the …
Not only does medical practice coaching teach you how to open your mind to who you really are, but it also allows you to bypass the dreaded $20,000 to $50,000 MBA business education that your medical school refused to teach you about.
When you recognize that many highly educated professional athletes hire personal coaches throughout their careers, you must wonder what value they find in being coached. You would think that …
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